I thought I would share a few videos of the top women in slacklining! (That I know of). I think it's SO important at the beginning of this sport, or any sport for that matter, that women push the envelope and set records in the female category. I believe that in order to push other women, women must stand apart and push EACHOTHER. This is in no way saying that we are less than men and therefore have to be in a separate category; I believe that women and men have different strengths, different weaknesses, and styles...so should be celebrated. Anyway! Below is a compilation of women's videos that I've seen from around the world (many of these girls are my good friends and have been an inspiration to me throughout my slackline career!)
Libby Sauter - USA
Hayley Ashburn and Myself - USA
Faith Dickey - USA
3.03 from vacaspurpuras on Vimeo.
Stephanie Siedel -Germany
Jelena and Ingrid - France
Elli Schulte - Germany
Taylor Fultz - USA
Carol Rangel - Brasil
Saturday, October 30, 2010
as of late
i am currently in boulder, colorado staying at my friend hayley's apartment. hayley is a fellow slackliner and one of the only other good females in the sport! mike is busy packing up his things at his parents house as we plan on moving soon! hayley and i are planning on rigging a 500 ft. longline tomorrow to break the current women's world record longline send (given we send, and given we dont get kicked out of the park!). in boulder, we get kicked out almost every time we set up a longline....hopefully tomorrow luck will be on our side.
plans for the next month are pretty busy. first, we have the dever ski and snow show with the gibbon team....then, we fly to boston for another ski and snow show where we will then drive a van down to pennsylvania for another demo with our friends at funtastik skate shop! hopefully while in pennsylvania i will be able to visit my best friend jenelle, who just got married in july!! from there, back to boston, back to boulder and then to moab!!! in moab (my favorite place in the WORLD) we will highline with people from all over the US and abroad. i can't wait!! it's going to be a great place for people to highline for their first time, for the experienced to challenge themselves on long long highlines (anywhere from 100 feet to 300 feet! and maybe longer!). this is one event i look forward to each year, as the community grows more and more people come and the more people i get to meet!
in other news....my grandfather is slowly fading away as he is not in the best of health. for the last year, he has been suffering. all his life, he has been a handyman; always working on something, fixing someones window or door, or railing, or building toys for us....he could never sit still. since he has been sick, he hasnt been able to do anything but sit in a chair with an occasional trip to the bathroom. it as been the biggest challenge of his life, no being able to do what he loves or what makes him feel important. it's been hard for my everyone in the family to see him this way and as he's fading now, i am glad. i am glad that his suffering will end and that he will no longer feel useless in the world as he sits in his chair. i know that he is ready to go, and i am excited for whatever is to come for him after this life. he has been such a loving person in my life, there for every christmas and every birthday. there being his silly little self, cracking jokes and showing the world what hard work really is.
thanks for reading! i will update soon as this next chapter of my life continues.
plans for the next month are pretty busy. first, we have the dever ski and snow show with the gibbon team....then, we fly to boston for another ski and snow show where we will then drive a van down to pennsylvania for another demo with our friends at funtastik skate shop! hopefully while in pennsylvania i will be able to visit my best friend jenelle, who just got married in july!! from there, back to boston, back to boulder and then to moab!!! in moab (my favorite place in the WORLD) we will highline with people from all over the US and abroad. i can't wait!! it's going to be a great place for people to highline for their first time, for the experienced to challenge themselves on long long highlines (anywhere from 100 feet to 300 feet! and maybe longer!). this is one event i look forward to each year, as the community grows more and more people come and the more people i get to meet!
in other news....my grandfather is slowly fading away as he is not in the best of health. for the last year, he has been suffering. all his life, he has been a handyman; always working on something, fixing someones window or door, or railing, or building toys for us....he could never sit still. since he has been sick, he hasnt been able to do anything but sit in a chair with an occasional trip to the bathroom. it as been the biggest challenge of his life, no being able to do what he loves or what makes him feel important. it's been hard for my everyone in the family to see him this way and as he's fading now, i am glad. i am glad that his suffering will end and that he will no longer feel useless in the world as he sits in his chair. i know that he is ready to go, and i am excited for whatever is to come for him after this life. he has been such a loving person in my life, there for every christmas and every birthday. there being his silly little self, cracking jokes and showing the world what hard work really is.
thanks for reading! i will update soon as this next chapter of my life continues.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Slackline - the worlds newest craze
Frankie, Mike and I are preparing for our America's Got Talent Audition on Sunday. We've been asked to audition by the producers because they've seen some slackline videos online. At first, we didn't want to do it....and I'll tell you why. One - slacklining is a sport, not an act. Two - we don't want to get up there and be labeled as a circus act (like people often do). Slacklining is a sport and a lifestyle, and we want to keep it that way. But, we realized that this is an amazing opportunity to expose millions of viewers to the sport and get the word out there! We don't plan on winning (and don't think we would). We just want to show the world what slackline is, and also demonstrate what's possible! Many people that slackline (and i'm not speaking for everyone) can only walk; and the reason for this is because they don't know what the next step is: Tricks! Slackline is similar to parkour, balance beam, and even tight rope walking, but it adds personal style and the attributes of a trampoline. It's bouncy, so you can trick, jump, and even flip! All in the comfort of your own backyard. It's a great challenge for anyone to try - kids, adults, even the elderly!
Keep a look out for us on the Ellen Show, and on America's Got Talent. I want to express why we've chosen to go on these shows, and please know that we're not steering away from who we are and the lifestyles that we live. Mike and I are still dirtbag's at heart (meaning we love to be on the road, explore, get dirty, and spend most of our time outdoors). Thanks for reading!
Keep a look out for us on the Ellen Show, and on America's Got Talent. I want to express why we've chosen to go on these shows, and please know that we're not steering away from who we are and the lifestyles that we live. Mike and I are still dirtbag's at heart (meaning we love to be on the road, explore, get dirty, and spend most of our time outdoors). Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Nor'Easter to San Diego!
Hi all! I'm here in San Diego working with Mike and Frankie Najera on our Slackline 101 film for Gibbon.....it's going to be fun :) The film will be for sale at REI, EMS, and other retailers that carry Gibbon Slacklines. Be sure to stay tuned, i'll post when it releases!
Below is a picture of my slackline toys ( I recently acquired, or went broke buying, the rest of my longline set-up!)
Since my last post, Mike and I have been to New Hampshire, Ohio, Colorado, and California.
In New Hampshire, we attended the Nor'Easter Climbing Event! It went really well, our slackline booth was the most popular by far. We got about 10+ people super stoked on slackline and are now following them on facebook and seeing their progress :)
After the Nor'Easter, we went to Pennsylvania to do a demo for store called FUNTASTIK. It's a skate shop in Mechanicsburg. It was one of our best demos by far. Aaron and Birdie, the owners of the shop set it up so that we did a demo in front of 3 high school gym classes, that are now implementing slackline into their curriculum! the kids were super excited to learn, and very impressed by what we could do on the lines. Some of them were even trying butt bounces as i held their hand! (It took me a while to get the guts to try a butt bounce). We are going back to Funtastik next month to do some more demos - we are so excited to see our new friends Aaron and Birdie again and to teach some more kids to balance!
After PA, we headed to Dayton Ohio for the Gearfest. We met up with Team Riders Hayden and Brad and had a blast. The festival actually allowed us to set up a highline!! About 15 feet high and 90 feet long. It ended up being my first semi free solo (meaning I walked it without a harness) AND Haydens first highline! It was super rad to walk highlines in front of a crowd. Everyone just stopped and stared.
Then, Mike and I headed back to Colorado and from Colorado we drove to Humboldt CA for the Humboldt Classic Slackline Competition! It's basically a bunch of hippies and stoners that live there (it was awesome!) It was so great to see everyone again (Jeremy, Andy, Hayley, Phoxx, Jono, Jerry, Susan, and many more!) Mike won first place in the Expert Division and Dan Portik came in second (SO proud! he's progressed so much since I saw him last). I won the women's division and Hayley came in second (I had a blast competing against Hayley, we're on very similar levels and she's such a great high spirted girl). Check out the video below for some footage!
After Humboldt, Mike, Jeremy and I drove down to Berkeley for a Gibbon DEMO at REI. On the way, we drove through the Redwoods!! So beautiful!!
It was a blast to slackline with Nick and Dan in Berkeley (and Dan graciously let Mike and I crash at his house for a week). Below is a video from the Demo! You may witness some levitation....just sayin.
Now, we're in San Diego working on our Slackline 101 Film with Frankie. I'm psyched to get it done and have it available for sale! While were here, we have also been invited to audition for Ameritca's Got Talent. I know, right!! We'll see how it turns out (we're not sure how we're going to make slackline into a real SHOW).
Stay tuned......Mike and I are going to appear on the Ellen Degeneres Show in November, AND America's Got Talent in 2011!!
Below is a picture of my slackline toys ( I recently acquired, or went broke buying, the rest of my longline set-up!)
Since my last post, Mike and I have been to New Hampshire, Ohio, Colorado, and California.
In New Hampshire, we attended the Nor'Easter Climbing Event! It went really well, our slackline booth was the most popular by far. We got about 10+ people super stoked on slackline and are now following them on facebook and seeing their progress :)
After the Nor'Easter, we went to Pennsylvania to do a demo for store called FUNTASTIK. It's a skate shop in Mechanicsburg. It was one of our best demos by far. Aaron and Birdie, the owners of the shop set it up so that we did a demo in front of 3 high school gym classes, that are now implementing slackline into their curriculum! the kids were super excited to learn, and very impressed by what we could do on the lines. Some of them were even trying butt bounces as i held their hand! (It took me a while to get the guts to try a butt bounce). We are going back to Funtastik next month to do some more demos - we are so excited to see our new friends Aaron and Birdie again and to teach some more kids to balance!
 |
| The Gearfest! |
 |
| Our set up for people to try :) |
 |
| Hayden Nickell raging the line! |
Then, Mike and I headed back to Colorado and from Colorado we drove to Humboldt CA for the Humboldt Classic Slackline Competition! It's basically a bunch of hippies and stoners that live there (it was awesome!) It was so great to see everyone again (Jeremy, Andy, Hayley, Phoxx, Jono, Jerry, Susan, and many more!) Mike won first place in the Expert Division and Dan Portik came in second (SO proud! he's progressed so much since I saw him last). I won the women's division and Hayley came in second (I had a blast competing against Hayley, we're on very similar levels and she's such a great high spirted girl). Check out the video below for some footage!
After Humboldt, Mike, Jeremy and I drove down to Berkeley for a Gibbon DEMO at REI. On the way, we drove through the Redwoods!! So beautiful!!
It was a blast to slackline with Nick and Dan in Berkeley (and Dan graciously let Mike and I crash at his house for a week). Below is a video from the Demo! You may witness some levitation....just sayin.
Now, we're in San Diego working on our Slackline 101 Film with Frankie. I'm psyched to get it done and have it available for sale! While were here, we have also been invited to audition for Ameritca's Got Talent. I know, right!! We'll see how it turns out (we're not sure how we're going to make slackline into a real SHOW).
Stay tuned......Mike and I are going to appear on the Ellen Degeneres Show in November, AND America's Got Talent in 2011!!
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